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FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 

FIFTH AVENUE, N. Y. 



MEMORIAL 



REV. WILLIAM W. PHILLIPS, D. D 



PRINTED BY REQUEST OF THE SESSION", AND OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 
OF THE , FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 



1A: 



NEW YOEK:^ 
CHARLES SCRIBNER & COMPANY, 

1865. 



[From the New York Evening Post, March 25th, 1865.] 



FUNERAL OF THE LATE DR. PHILLIPS. 



The funeral services of the late William W. Phillips, D. D., were held 
in the First Presbyterian Church, Fifth Avenue, on Thursday, 23d inst., at 4 
o'clock in the afternoon, and were attended by a large concourse of friends — 
hundreds being unable to obtain admission to the church. 

A striking feature of the occasion was the presence of so large a number 
of clergymen, of all evangelical denominations, who came from far and near 
to evince their respect and affection for the memory of their departed brother 
in the ministry. 

The services were conducted by 



Rev. Dr. Spring, 
" " Plumer, 
" " Ferris, 



Rev. Dr. Krebs, 
" " Dickinson, 
" " Thompson. 



The pall-bearers were 



Rev. Dr. Vinton, 
" " Shedd, 

" " SOMERS, 



" " Vermilye, 



Rev. Dr. Dewitt, 
" " Adams, 
" " Rice, 
" " Campbell. 



Dr. Krebs delivered the address, giving a sketch of the life and character 
of the deceased ; and was followed by Dr. Plumer in a few touching remarks. 
The impressive services, the sombre drapery, the manifest sorrow of those 



4 



FUNERAL OF THE LATE DR. PHILLIPS. 



who were taking their final leave of the remains of him who had baptized 
their infants, married their young men and maidens, visited their sick, and 
buried their dead ; the beautiful rendering of the hymns (favorites of the 
deceased) commencing 

" There is a fountain filled with blood," 

and 

" How blest the righteous when he dies ; " 

the tolling of the bell as the mournful procession passed from the late resi- 
dence of the deceased to the church ; presented a scene so truly solemn and 
affecting as will scarcely be effaced from the memory of any of its observers. 

" Thus passed forever from our view 
The noble, faithful, pious, true ; 
But from our hearts and mem'ries never 
Can we his name or virtues sever." 



ADDRESSES 

DELIVERED AT THE FUNERAL OF 

REV. DR. PHILLIPS, 

MARCH 23d, 1865, 

BY 

REV. JOHN M. KREBS, D. D., 

AND 

REV. WILLIAM S. PLUMER, D. D. 



ADDRESS OF REV. DR. KEEBS. 



There is a stricken household — there is a stricken church. 
There are many hearts bleeding this day — and many anxieties 
and sympathies awakened by the blow which has prostrated a 
standard-bearer on the high places of the field, and bereaved so 
large a portion of the church of God in this city and this land. 
And I too — may I not say it ? — have lost a friend, a counsellor, 
a brother — one in whom I trusted with unbounded confidence — 
whose kind and almost parental regard and unobtrusive con- 
descensions I have enjoyed during my whole ministry — in ex- 
periences and trials, in intimacies and confidences in eventful 
times, and in personal concerns of the heart and soul. 

I have hardly dared to trust myself to speak on the present 
occasion, It is not so difficult to speak in eulogy of the honored 
dead : nor is it unmeet that I should fulfil the office that grows 
out of official and personal relations, — while as the last of his 
co-presbyters who conversed with him or saw him living, there 
is some fitness in my compliance with the request which for such 
a service has the force of a command. 



10 



MEMORIAL OF 



But I cannot help feeling — as amid other and similar and 
recent solemnities — which have crowded upon the tenderest 
recollections and affections of these churches and ministers — that 
God Himself is speaking to us with the voice of His providence 
— and of His rod — with a startling and almost appalling elo- 
quence — that bids us " be still and know that He is God." The 
occasion itself is more affecting and impressive to the hearts that 
gather here to the burial of a man of God than any words of man 
can be. When that majestic form, which now lies prostrate here, 
moved among you, and appeared in this pulpit, you felt the 
power of His presence — the force of all his excellent natural 
endowments of person, as well as of mind — that seemed to make 
his words more imposing, while these endowments were really 
aided and employed, as they were sanctified by all those excel- 
lent gifts and graces, which the Spirit of God superinduced upon 
them, to make him a minister, a witness, and an example of that 
grace and truth which are in Jesus : and you felt that his words 
were weighty and powerful. But was there ever aught of solemn 
admonition that spoke from those eloquent lips like this, his last 
and most impressive sermon — these mute appeals of these sombre 
draperies, this gathering of mourners, these bowed hearts — and 
amid alJ and above all — this eloquent majesty of death ? May 
it not be said, with no inappropriate application, that " he being 
dead yet speaketh" — and now once more, most solemnly of all, to 



REV. WILLIAM W. PHILLIPS, D.D. 



11 



bid you remember the word which he spake while he was yet 
with you ? 

The rapid changes since my own accession to the minis- 
try in this city have removed the fathers who received and 
inducted me when I came among them in the dew of my 
youth. The most of those venerable men are dead. In the 
Presbytery one only survives in the pastoral office ; in our Pres- 
byterian churches here, only two ; and in all the denominations 
only three. Within the last ten months the Presbytery has lost 
from these conspicuous places six of its members— -four of them 
among the most eminent and of prolonged usefulness — men of 
mark — men revered — and we who stand here are admonished 
to-day that we too are going the way of all the earth. Well may 
we exclaim — " The fathers, where are they \ and the prophets, do 
they live forever ? " 

But the memory of their ministrations remains, and of the 
oppositions of unbelief, and the fruits of repentance and faith, and 
the word of God which liveth and abideth forever. And all the 
effects of their ministry survive — both in them to whom they 
were the savor of death unto death, and in them to whom they 
Were the savor of life unto life. But they are gone — to meet with 
their hearers again at the bar of God, and to give in their account 
— of some with joy — of others with grief — and all of them to 
test the truth of what these prophets believed and preached. 



12 



MEMORIAL OF 



The treasure was put into earthen vessels — the waters of life 
were put into earthen pitchers. And these are broken — although 
the treasures and the waters were not lost. But the season is 
short — for us — and for you also who hear us. 

If this truth were felt, as its solemnity and impressiveness 
ought to be felt — what preachers should we be — what hearers 
would you be I What an influence and force would be conveyed 
by every sermon ! What scenes of spiritual interest would our 
worshipping assemblies present ! What pains of conviction — 
what anxiety to be saved — what holy travailing of the new birth 
— what joy and peace in believing — what thronging crowds in 
the sanctuary — what hopes of salvation — what fitness for living, 
and fitness for dying too — what comforts and consolations 
abounding by Christ — and what looking for and hasting unto 
the coming of the day of God — and what praises and services of 
the glory of our God and of His Christ ! 

And if for the moment we weep and mourn, because His 
servants do not continue by reason of death, and are taken away 
from our fond hearts and longing hopes for the church of God 
and her wide field in a dying world wherein her prayer and 
service for Christ and souls are to be employed — we are not to 
forget all that God accomplished by them — nor that Jesus Christ 
is still Head over all things for the church — and that He will 
be with her alway to the end of the world. He is the same 



REV. WILLIAM W. PHILLIPS, D. D. 



13 



yesterday, to-day, and forever — His glorious person, and cove- 
nant, and atoning blood — His power and love and faithfulness 
— His compassion and care — His mediation and intercession — 
His promises and His truth. He has the residue of the Spirit 
—He will not leave you comfortless — He will raise up laborers 
for the harvest — and in their generations He shall have a seed 
to serve Him — and other ministers and martyrdoms, it may be, 
to testify to the ages to come the glorious gospel of the blessed 
God — to comfort His people — and to build up His church. Zion 
is engraved on the palms of His hands : her walls continually 
rise before Him. 

But it becomes the occasion to attempt, yet with no particu- 
lar care to be methodical, some humble and merely suggestive me- 
morial of the life and character of our departed friend and brother 
and father. We are commanded to remember those who have 
had the rule over us, who have spoken to us the word of God — 
and to follow their faith, considering the end of their conversation. 

William Wirt Phillips was born in Montgomery County, 
in this state, on September 23d, 1796. From his early child- 
hood he was of a thoughtful and religious turn of mind, and he 
grew r up in singular purity and uprightness. Often, in after 
years, he adverted, with pious thankfulness, to the goodness of 
God in preserving him from the sins of youth. Early led to 



MEMORIAL OF 



recognize Christ and embrace Him as his Saviour, he confessed 
Him before men in claiming union with His church, shortly 
after graduating as a Bachelor of Arts of Union College, and 
while he was yet under twenty years of age. Entering the 
Theological Seminary of the Associate Reformed Church in this 
city, under the care of the late Dr. John M. Mason, and after 
ward the Theological Seminary of the Eeformed Dutch Church at 
Kew Brunswick, he was contemporary in his studies under that 
distinguished teacher and preacher, with many who have be- 
come eminent ministers of the gospel. After prosecuting a very 
full course of study, he was, in April, 1818, ordained as pastor 
of the church then in Pearl street, but now merged in the Central 
Church in Broome street ; and in that church he continued a 
most acceptable and useful ministry for about eight years, when 
he was translated to the First Presbyterian Church, then wor- 
shipping in Wall street : and therein, and, after the removal of 
the church edifice and the erection of this church, in this place, 
he exercised his pastoral office for thirty-nine years — his whole 
ministerial life occupying a period of forty-seven years — until now 
he has finished his course with joy, and the ministry which he 
received from the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace 
of God. And ye are witnesses how holily and unblanieably he 
behaved himself among you, and exhorted and comforted and 
charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, that ye 



REV. WILLIAM W. PHILLIPS, D.D. 



15 



would walk worthy of God who hath called you unto his king- 
dom and glory. 

While as a pastor he devoted himself to the edification of his 
especial charge, he was called to the performance of other public 
trusts, to the duties of which he attended with great fidelity 
and skill, and with great acceptance. JEx officio, he was, by the 
terms of their respective foundations, a trustee of the Leake and 
"Watts Orphan Asylum and of the Sailor's Snug Harbor — posts 
requiring no little time and labor. He was also a trustee of the 
College of New Jersey (Nassau Hall), at Princeton, and a member 
of the Council of the New York University ; and he was both 
a trustee and a director of the Theological Seminary at Princeton, 
and President of the latter Board : and always in his place. Be- 
sides being repeatedly elected a member of the several other 
Boards of the Presbyterian Church, he was, from its organization 
in 1837, the chairman of the executive committee of the Board 
of Foreign Missions, and, for several years past, President of 
the Board also. Every week found him in his place in that 
committee, wherein he made himself thoroughly familiar with 
its operations, the condition of its missions, and the name, char- 
acter, and work of every missionary ; and in every way he showed 
himself an earnest and sagacious friend and promoter of that 
great cause. He was frequently a member of the General 
Assembly, and in 1835 wac its Moderator. These positions 



16 



MEMORIAL OF 



evinced in what repute lie was, in the church at large and with 
his brethren. And thus was laid upon him in a measure the care 
of all the churches, involving an amount of service of which few 
men are capable. These were not barren honors, but severe 
labors. Nor was this service any detriment to his parochial 
charge. Neither he nor his people regarded it with churlish 
jealousy or narrow and selfish regard to its isolated interests ; 
but by his public spirit, which was shared by his people, was 
illustrated the duty of looking not upon their own things, but 
also upon the things of others, and the advantage to be gained 
by enlarged views and all the reflex influence and reciprocal 
benefit which a pastor and man of public spirit confers at once 
upon the whole church and upon the particular field from 
whence he dates his enlarged enterprise. 

The degree of D. D. was conferred upon him by Columbia 
College, when he was yet under thirty years of age. 

None would shrink more than he from the eulogy or mention 
of himself. But shall we not bear testimony to the grace of God 
which was with him % 

He was a good man, full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. 
He walked with God daily. Eminently a man of prayer, his 
household knew why his resort in the early morning was to his 
study ; and when, under the pains of his last sickness, he stood 



REV. WILLIAM W. PHILLIPS, D. D. £f 

leaning over his study-desk, or sat in his chair with closed eyes 
and barely moving lips, they knew that he was communing with 
God. And herein lay in part the secret of that remarkable 
ability, copiousness, and unction of his public prayers in the 
sanctuary — so full, so appropriate, so fervent, that one of another 
preference said that if all ministers prayed like him there would 
be no need of a liturgy — and that might be said of him which 
the late Dr. James W. Alexander once remarked to me concern- 
ing Dr. Milledoler, that " he was given to the church to teach 
ministers how to pray." He was a good man. Men felt it, and 
" how awful goodness is ; " as one said, who mingled much 
with public men and great men in political circles, that he was 
always unusually moved with " a certain awe," when he was in 
the presence and company of this true man of God. 

For the past two years he was more evidently ripening for 
heaven. The finer points of his character were more apparent : 
his patience, meekness, tenderness, love, spirituality, upward affec- 
tion, the characteristics of his pure and lovely life, were brought 
out more and more. 

With that great strong form — so firmly knit, and framed for 
endurance — he was, nevertheless, the subject of great bodily 
suffering, which was not generally known ; but he complained 
not — nor murmured, nor proclaimed it abroad ; but he bore it 
with sustained spirit — and its influence was observable upon him 

3 



18 



MEMORIAL OF 



as it helped to purify his character, and even helped him in his 
work. Obliged to write standing — unable to sit down — he 
would sometimes say : " Oh, if my people knew what suffering 
it costs me to prepare for their instruction, they would surely 
appreciate more this painful labor for them, and make a better 
improvement of the truth." And it was to him a regret that hi** 
infirmity rendered him unable to visit them at their own houses 
as often as he would. So excruciating was this anguish at times, 
especially toward the last, that after a severe paroxysm, he said : 
" I thought I had endured all that poor human nature could 
bear : but God has shown me that there are greater extremes : — 
and I am a wonder to myself, to suffer as I do, and yet live." 
And yet, with all this, under complicated agony, there was no 
impeachment of God — no bitter outcry. " It was all right : God 
had a good purpose in it : His will be done." 

Thus to the last, so meekly bore he his Master's will. As 
the end drew nigh, he did not fail to apprehend its approach. 
Methodically exact, he had set his house in order, in his temporal 
as well as in his spiritual concerns. He spoke of the probable 
event — not as terminating his life, but as closing up his work. 
He was simply, beautifully calm. He knew whom he had be- 
lieved. His mind, unclouded till the last few hours, showed its 
unfaltering trust. Without speaking of himself, his conversation 
was in heaven, and implied more than he said. When told of 



REV. WILLIAM W. PHILLIPS, D.D. 19 

a certain person who was suffering much from excessive bodily- 
pain, and was, at the same time, oppressed with spiritual doubts 
and fears, he said : " I pity him, to have to bear that double 
burden — anguish of body and a wounded spirit too, troubled 
with the temptations of the adversary taking advantage of his 
weakness." When, in my last interview with him, while he could 
still converse, I spoke with a grateful remembrance of his kind 
counsels in times of trouble, and especially of the comfort I had 
derived from his last sermon in my hearing, — as if to ward off 
any seeming tribute to himself, he replied : " Give God the 
praise : it is He who makes use of us ; and all our fitness to aid 
one another is from Him.' 1 

He showed piety at home. His household fondly revered 
and loved him. To his children he was more like their elder 
brother. He made them his companions, — talked with them and 
taught them, while he counselled with them, and shared their 
studies and plans and recreations, and governed them with the 
power of his loving sympathies. 

He was very much attached to his own people, and they in 
turn to him. They were kept together against the adverse 
influences of changing population by the force of their love for 
his person and ministry. To the poor he relieved— the children 
he instructed — the afflicted he comforted, he was greatly endeared. 
His people had all confidence in his integrity and sound judgment, 



20 



MEMORIAL OF 



and they cooperated with him without question or reluctance 
in the plans he formed for developing the energies of the church 
and promoting its prosperity and usefulness, and the widest in- 
fluence of his ministry among them ; so that they were singularly 
accordant, peaceful, and happy in each other. His church was 
indeed his family. There he spoke with all freedom and sim- 
plicity ; adverse to the advertisement of his sermons, or reports 
of them, because he would not have that free, familiar discourse 
as with his own household impaired by the thought of the press, 
or by mingling with it an ambitious style and sensational themes, 
or by truckling for celebrity and the applause of the platform. 
In early life, he had, according to the custom of some, kept a 
journal — which, however, he destroyed, because he feared the 
record which might fall under the eyes of others, should ex- 
tenuate or exaggerate the truth of his own experiences for 
posthumous admiration. 

An humble-minded, modest man was he — simple and sincere 
and confiding, cheerful of temper, but grave and dignified. His 
retiring, unobtrusive disposition caused some persons to charge 
him with being cold, reserved, unsocial, and proud. They knew 
him not. None cherished profounder views of his own unworthi- 
ness and obligations to grace : none more tender, affectionate, 
and sympathizing. He was ever ready to help his brethren, — 
to take pains to help them, never excusing himself from the 



REV. WILLIAM W. PHILLIPS, D. D. 21 

service. Ever ready too to welcome them, to counsel them, to 
comfort them, to judge their weaknesses charitably, and pity 
them ; but never with proud and oppressive condescensions. A 
friend more in unmistakable acts than professions, he was always 
real and reliable ; a lover of good men ; and given to hospi- 
tality. 

With his strong mind and cultivation, he might at all times, 
without arrogance, have assumed commanding position and 
leadership in the church and be forward in utterance. But his 
voice was not heard in the streets and in the chief places of 
concourse. He abstained from clamorous pretension. He waited 
till call and occasion drew him to conspicuous post and service 
beyond the sphere of daily labor where he dwelt among his 
own people. He courted not association with the great, nor 
sought worldly preeminence. He disdained sycophantic ob- 
sequiousness to win the smiles of the wealthy and powerful. He 
could not crook the pregnant hinges of the knee that thrift 
might follow fawning. He held no man's person in admiration 
because of advantage. His prayer was to be kept from the fear 
of man that bringeth a snare. And thus was he independent in 
his judgments, firm to his convictions, undaunted for truth and 
principle ; and no mere human expediences could sway 01 
swerve him. 

In the courts of the church he spoke but seldom; but al 



22 



MEMORIAL OF 



ways with authority — so wisely and honestly that all listened 
and trusted his clear, sound speech and discriminating judg, 
ment. 

So honest and incorruptible was he — so prudent, consistent, 
and Christ-like — that none distrusted his sincerity — and all gave 
him reverence and respect. A living epistle of the truth, he 
rendered the religion he taught by his example, amiable, and, if 
I may use the expression, respectable in the eyes of the world ; 
and with a power beyond the suffrages or testimonies of men, 
he repelled and withered whatsoever scheme or disposition bold 
bad men might have manifested at any time to impeach his 
integrity or calumniate his gospel. 

He was faithful to the gospel. He believed it. He loved it. 
His soul's trust was in the cross of Christ. That cross was the 
theme of his preaching. Unmindful of the sneers and clamors 
which would exclude the preaching of the gospel as obsolete, and 
substitute for it their own devices, he felt that the cross was 
Christianity — that Christ alone was the wisdom and power of 
God unto salvation — that to save men's souls was first in im- 
portance, and that to heal them was to abate all the ills of life ; 
that all moral and sanitary reform must be the fruit of evangelical 
regeneration, — and to make the tree good would insure that the 
fruit should be good also. And he so preached, and with such 
a purpose, that if perchance there should be among his hearers 



REV. WILLIAM W. PHILLIPS, D. D. 



23 



one soul that needed to be tanght the way of salvation, he should 
not go away untaught, lest perchance he might never hear it 
again. It was a maxim of his that " prayers and sermons are 
not intended for admiration, but to edify ; " and if ministers 
would but keep themselves out of view, and their reputation for 
learning and eloquence, and simply hold up Christ and His cross, 
how much more effectively they would preach the gospel and 
save men. 

He was no showy man — in the pulpit, or out of it. He was 
something better. Without pretension — without ambition of 
style — solid — clear — instructive — scriptural — he was mighty in 
the Scriptures — and his eloquence was that which the word 
of God inspired. It was said of him that his lectures were his 
best preaching — so thoroughly were they imbued with the Bible 
— so well expounded — yet so free and unrestrained by scholastic 
rule, or aim at popularity. In a day of glare and tinsel and 
self-seeking — all honor to the man who was true to the glorious 
gospel — who never preached himself — and never pandered to itch- 
ing ears, and ill-informed, conceited minds and unsanctified hearts. 

And thus was he faithful unto death. And now he comes 
to his grave, as a shock of corn fully ripe that cometh in his 
season : not worn out, not imbecile ; but in the maturity of his 
powers, his eye hardly dimmed or his natural force abated ; still 
vigorous, untiring, bravely laboring on to the last, even amid 



24: 



MEMORIAL OF 



trials and pains. While he laid upon his death-bed, panting 
and gasping, you might look through the open door into his 
study, where on his desk was still lying the unfinished sermon 
arrested by the accession of those complicated diseases which 
paralyzed his strength and interrupted all his work on earth 
forever. He had prayed that he might not outlive his useful- 
ness, that he might not be laid aside to become a burden. In 
this he was exempted — as he was exempted from all the bitter- 
ness of death. 

But precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his 
saints. He guards their lives : He watches over their end 
Precious in His sight is the death of His faithful ministers. He 
formed their character, and prepared them for their reward. 
They had fought the good fight ; they had finished their course ; 
they had kept the faith ; and the crown of righteousness awaits 
them. Let us not weep and break our hearts because they have 
entered into rest. Let us be grateful for their godly lives, and 
pious service, and be followers of them who through faith and 
patience have inherited the promises. Their death is a legacy 
to the church and to survivors : it illustrates God's faithfulness 
to them to the end, in their fidelity to Him, and in their de- 
parture in peace and blessed assurance of everlasting life. 

Moses is commanded to go up to Nebo and die, just on 
the threshold of the promised land into which he was leading 



REV. WILLIAM W. PHILLIPS, D. D. 



25 



Israel. It seemed hard. But he is active ; lie is submissive ; 
lie is willing ; and he is favored too. God kisses away his breath 
— hides his servant from the strife of tongues — hides his sep- 
ulchre, — but his memory is blessed forever. 

How shall it be with us ? Such a command will soon fall on 
our hearts. Do we keep the fact in view ? Are we ready for the 
summons? Shall it find us still doing the Master's will? 

And all of us, beloved, shall have to take this step. Will 
it be by the side of your faithful ministers, to be their crown 
and rejoicing in that day ? Ah ! if it be not so ? Have the 
life and labor of your pastors hitherto been lost upon you? 
See to it, that you lose not their death also. 



4 



REMARKS OF REV. DR. PLUMER. 



" And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made 
great lamentation over him." Blessed be God, true religion 
chills none of the kindly feelings of our hearts. Stoicism receives 
no countenance from Christianity. When we are afflicted, God 
allows that we may weep. " Jesus wept " at the grave of his 
friend Lazarus, and we may weep at the graves of our friends too. 
The enlightened teacher of Christ's religion is too well taught to 
reprove the mourner. True, indeed, when good men die, we do 
not weep for the loss they have sustained, but for ourselves. 
And yet we weep. 

The general outlines of the character of the deceased have 
been well delineated by the brother who preceded me. Repe- 
tition would be out of place. But a few additional thoughts may 
not be untimely. 

When the late Dr. Baxter died, his students pointed to the 
pulpit, and said : " There Baxter wept." When Dr. Payson was 
gone, one of his people took a stranger into his church, and, 
pointing to his pulpit, said : " There Payson prayed." Perhaps 



30 



MEMORIAL OF 



the deepest impression made by the public ministrations of 
Dr. Phillips was through his prayers. Here he stood and prayed. 
He did not pray at the people, nor to the people ; but for the 
people, and to the Almighty. He was indeed mouth and wisdom 
to the penitent, the broken-hearted, and the child of sorrow. 
He came not to the throne of grace to display his gifts, nor to 
harangue the people through the form of devotion ; but to adore 
the Sovereign of all worlds, to make prostrate obeisance of all his 
faculties before the God of heaven, to confess and bewail sin, and 
to plead — oh, with what earnestness and tenderness ! — for the life 
of the souls of men. 

There is probably not living a man who ever suspected Dr. 
Phillips of an envious disposition. If the whole world would 
act acccording to the tenor of his life, we should begin to think 
that the Scripture saith in vain : " The spirit that is in us listeth 
to envy." His heart never sickened at the growing reputation 
or usefulness of a brother in the ministry, or of any one else. 
Great, humble man! He rejoiced in the blessing that God 
granted to the persons and the labors of his fellow servants. 
Perhaps a more unselfish man did not live in this world. Truly 
he did not live unto himself. How many here to-day, not resi- 
dent in this city, have in years gone by been mightily cheered 
in their labors for Christ's cause by the hearty good will and 
efficient aid of our dear departed brother ! 



REV. WILLIAM W. PHILLIPS, D.D. 31 

As a matter of course, Dr. Phillips was remarkably free from 
unkindness of heart. Nor was his goodness merely negative. 
His heart overflowed with kindness. For more than a third of 
a century I have known him well. Under no circumstances have 
I ever heard from his lips an uncharitable word. Oftentimes 
has he Spoken with respect and affection of those whose deport- 
ment had given him great pain. Well did he understand the 
exhortation of the apostle when he said : " Mind not high 
things ; but condescend to men of low estate." To the poor, 
pious boy, aiming at the ministry, or to the young, timid proba- 
tioner for the ministry, he was as affable and as kind as to the 
aged servant of Christ of high reputation. He wept and prayed 
and as tenderly sympathized with the poor widow and her 
fatherless children, as he would with the most honored matron in 
the land. 

The secrets of Dr. Phillips's usefulness and high character 
were found in his faith and love. He believed God. He be- 
lieved in God, and in Jesus Christ His Son, and in the blessed 
Holy Spirit. He endured as seeing Him who is invisible. He 
walked by faith and not by sight. He was habitually and pro- 
foundly assured that every word of God was pure and true, and 
would be infallibly accomplished. And his faith worked by love. 
He greatly desired that others should know the mystery of God 
and of Christ, by which his heart was supported. Never was 



32 



MEMORIAL OF 



he so eloquent as when beseeching men to accept the salvation 
of the gospel, or beseeching Christians to a large liberality and 
an enlightened zeal in sending the gospel to the perishing heathen. 
If he had had even serious faults of character, all but the malig- 
nant would agree that the grave should bury them forever. But 
it is pleasant to be persuaded that there is probably no good 
man living, who on hearing of his death, felt that he had any 
thing to erase from the tablet of his memory, in the way of 
forgiving or forgetting a wrong received from Dr. Phillips. 

Under these sad, yet consoling circumstances, we come here 
to-day to commit to the tomb the mortal remains of our beloved 
friend. Farewell, thou noble, loving, generous, tender-hearted 
man ! Farewell, till we meet around the throne of Grod and of 
the Lamb. Christians never part to meet no more. Nor do any 
of them leave the world but in answer to the intercession of our 
great High Priest, one of whose authoritative petitions is : 
" Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with 
me : that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me ; 
for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world." 



DISCOURSE 

ADDRESSED TO THE 

«§ffpii0! of til Jtrflt § ml$t tim fimtft 

COMMEMORATIVE OF THEIR LATE PASTOR, 

REV. WILLIAM WIRT PHILLIPS, D. D., 

SABBATH MORNING, APRIL SOTLT, 1865. 

7 

REV. EICHAED W. DICKINSON, D. D. 



FUNERAL DISCOURSE 



REVELATION xiv, 13. 

And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die 
in the Lord from henceforth : Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours j 
and their works do follow them. 



This passage of Holy Writ, though so familiar to our ear, is 
no less impressive than appropriate to this occasion. Emanating 
from no fallible mind, and recorded on authority, it demands 
credence. Comprehensive in its relations, as well as clear in 
its import, even aside from the context, it suggests the weightiest 
thoughts. Sublime in its disclosures it thrills the soul. 

There are voices from the earth respecting the dead ; but they 
are vague, confused, often contradictory ; never satisfying the 
yearnings of our spiritual nature after light and life. Reason 
has been heard to speak ; but however she may have ventured 



36 



MEMORIAL OF 



a presumption on the capacities of the soul, and the signs of 
material things, she has never attained to the high conclusion 
that man will live hereafter : much less that in another state of 
existence, he will be eternally happy. Endued with sublimated 
energy, or inflated by the achievements of science, she has 
soared even to empyrean heights ; but smitten with blindness, 
or wearied in her search, she has brought " us back the tidings 
of despair." 

As if conscious of the futility of all the unaided speculations 
of the human mind, of late years, mediums of communication 
with the departed have been introduced by men affecting a 
pro founder insight of the nature of things ; but though a prurient 
curiosity may be attracted by their mystic rites, and the un- 
thinking may wonder, the phenomena of spiritism serve only to 
prove how the noblest ideas may be caricatured, and the ten- 
derest sentiments of our nature abused and trifled with. 

Turn we then to the grave : ah, that cannot speak. Often 
has man stood knocking, weeping at the door of the sepulchre ; 
but there was no voice, nor any that answered. All is silence 
audible around its portals; and within, all is darkness visible 
As we have hung in anguish over the corpse of some dear friend 
with whom we had been wont to exchange thought in rela- 
tion to the nature and issues of death, how often have we 



REV. WILLIAM W. PHILLIPS, D. D . 



37 



detected in our consciousness the vain wish that those dead lips 
might open for but an instant, if only to tell us that the spirit 
lives ! Oh ! could the sheeted dead, through whatever medium, 
only whisper to us the secrets of their dark abode ! But from 
the wide-spread realms of death, the gnawing of the earthworm 
is the only sound that has fallen on the listening ear. Amid 
the untold myriads that have been driven from the earth 
before the breath of the destroying angel not one within the 
wide domain of nature has by any means made known to us his 
destiny. 

The voice of revelation alone has spoken audibly ; and its 
accents are no less clear and certain than authoritative and final. 

" I heard a voice from Heaven, saying unto me : " It is indeed 
a man who here speaks ; but no man before the Apostle John 
ever presumed to affirm on the ground of a special revelation to 
himself as to the final state of the dead. Neither Plato, nor 
Socrates, whatever might have been their views, ever dreamed 
of authenticating their conjectures by a reference to heaven's 
will. Fondly as they cherished virtue, strenuously as they insisted 
on the formation of virtuous habits in order to the reunion of 
the soul with Deity, there was always the doubt implied, if not 
expressed — whether the soul would outlive the body. Even the 
admirable apostrophe of Tacitus to the spirit of Agricola, than 



38 



MEMORIAL OF 



which nothing can be found amid the ethical remains of antiquity 
more conclusive as to the degree of light which the wisest of the 
old heathen enjoyed, begins with a disheartening hypothesis.* 

Say not the Apostle labored under an hallucination — the 
not unfrequent result of too long restricted thought on any 
subject ; or that he might have mistaken the utterances of his 
own enthusiastic imaginings for a voice from heaven ; yea, that 
confident as lie might have been, there is no reason why we 
should suspend our faith on his affirmation — be it ever so 
positive. 

He was one of those chosen Apostles whom God had in- 
spired to record his will; and this appears from the doctrines 
which he, as well as they, preached ; from the principles which 
they alike exemplified ; and from the miracles which they 
wrought — all in the name of the Crucified One ; to the miracu- 
lous facts of whose history they all bore consistent testimony ; 
and for whose sake they counted not their lives dear unto 
themselves. 

As the prophets of old were gifted with a prescience of future 
events, so John the Apostle, endowed with " the vision and the 

* If in another world there is a pious mansion for the blessed ; if as the wisest men 
have thought, the soul is not extinguished with the body, may you enjoy a state of 
eternal felicity." — Life of Agricola, sec. xlvi. 



REV. WILLIAM W. PHILLIPS, D. D. 



39 



faculty divine," discerned scenes in heaven. As God took Enoch, 
" for he was not ; " as Elijah was taken to heaven in a chariot of 
fire ; as Paul was caught up into the third heavens, and " heard 
unutterable words," so John was made to hear a voice from 
heaven : and the voice said — Write : 

Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, 

How suitable this closing announcement from heaven by the 
lips of the oldest and only surviving apostle. Without this, 
I had almost said, the Bible were deficient in its essential com- 
munications. 

What more desirable for us to know — we who dwell in a 
vale of tears ; and are naturally in bondage to the fear of death, 
than that there is a world of bliss beyond the grave. Why, for 
this knowledge, " the whole creation has groaned and travailed 
in pain together until now." 

Sin brought death into the world. But in the councils of 
eternity, a purpose was formed, a plan devised even by Him 
against whom man had sinned, to divest death of its sting and 
the grave of its anticipated victory. Looking back over the 
inspired records — though the whole plain is darkened by 
shadows, we discern as on distant mountain tops, the glimpses 
of immortal light. Amid a succession of typical institutions and 
events we discern the preparative arrangements for the coming 



40 MEMORIAL OF 

of Messias. We behold Him to whom every Mosaical rite, and 
every prophetic song referred — as the light of the world and the 
hope of immortality, at last appearing in "the form of a servant ; " 
and after a life of toil, privation, and suffering, submitting to 
the stroke of death but to rise victorious — conqueror forever over 
death and helL We see him tendering His overtures of pardon 
and peace to a lost world ; and hear Him declaring with all that 
authority which became the Son of God : " He that believeth on 
Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." And now after all 
essential truth to man's salvation has been recorded ; now as the 
canon of revelation is about to be completed, John, in the closing 
stage of his apostleship, hears a voice from heaven, saying unto 
him : " Write, Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from 
henceforth." 

As if it were not enough to tell us of " the Way, the Truth, 
and the Life," God would afford us proof conclusive that the 
believers in Christ never die. As if It were not enough that 
Paul himself, though the chiefest Apostle of the Lord should be 
commissioned by the word of the Lord to say — " I would not 
have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are asleep, 
that ye sorrow not as others who have no hope ; for if ye believe 
that Jesus died and rose again, even so they also that sleep in 
Jesus will God bring with him : " God expressly employs a 



REV. WILLIAM W. PHILLIPS, D.D. 41 

servant to make a record to this effect : " Blessed are the dead that 
die in the Lord." They did not believe in one whom I had not 
sent : they did not entrust their souls to a mere man, nor to any 
creature : they did not give up all, and labor and toil for Christ 
in vain — No ; " Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord." 

Write it then, that the world may know that the gospel 
affords the only stable ground of hope for sinful man. Write it, 
that the end of the gospel revelation may not be defeated ; that 
so glorious a truth may not be left to be perverted, and ultimately 
denied through vain tradition. Write it, that believers may be 
incited to "be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the 
work of the Lord." Write it, that unbelievers may know what 
has become of those who lived and died in Christ. Write it for 
the comfort and consolation of your guilty, polluted, weeping 
dying world. 

Had the heathen worthies only heard this voice from heaven, 

how many days of wasting study and nights of anxious thought 

had they been spared ! how had their writings gleamed with the 

light of truth — their dying hours been cheered by the hope of 

life eternal ! Could but the heathen of our own times be made 

to hear this voice, how might countless precious souls be rescued 

from the fangs of demon gods ! 

O tidings of great joy ! Be of good cheer, dying mortals ! 
6 



42 MEMORIAL OF 

That there is a blessed future stretching out in endless expanse 
and duration beyond the grave, is as clear and certain as that 
" man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever : " a 
future state of exemption from all evils, and the enjoyment of all 
good : a place as well as a state where all our faculties will be 
exalted, refined, and energized in adaptation to its spiritual 
nature, and holy ends. 

But why seek ye the living among the dead ? Why go to 
nature when the God of nature has put into our hand the glass 
of his Word % Look — that is no mirage — no cloud-land : it is 
all glorious reality — such as was never seen 

" By waking sense nor by the dreaming soul." 

'Tis the heaven of the Bible — where God is ; where the winged 
seraphs are ; where the spirits of just men made perfect are — all 
before that golden altar. 

Away with the darkly skeptical suggestions of an evil heart. 
If to the eye of unassisted reason clouds and darkness rest upon 
the end of man ; to the eye of faith " day dawns on the night 
of the grave." If nature shudders in view of the silence, the 
corruption, the oblivion of the grave, Faith hears a voice issuing 
from heaven : " Fear not to go down into the grave ; I will go 
down with you and will bring you up again." " In my Father's 



KEY WILLIAM W. PHILLIPS, D.D. 



43 



house are many mansions : if it were not so I would have told 
you ; I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go away, I will 
come again, and take you unto myself, that where I am, there 
ye may be also." " I am the resurrection and the life." Yea, saith 
the Spirit, "blessed are the dead that die in the Lord? 

Divested of the encumbrances of fallen humanity — purified 
from sin — ennobled in their powers, they have entered " on the 
riches of the inheritance of the saints in light." Hark ! what 
strains are those that break upon the ear of listening faith ? 
Loud are they as the sound of many waters ; symphonious as 
the music of the spheres. 'Tis the song of the blessed : Alleluia ; 
salvation and glory and honor and power unto our God that 
sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. 

Their blessedness is, in not a few instances, even anticipated 
by the dying believer. How willing is he to leave a world to 
which so many cling as their only portion ; how willing to 
surrender his weeping friends into the hands of his covenant- 
keeping God. How precious is Jesus to his soul. What serenity 
of trust pervades his parting spirit ! 

" Is that a death-bed where the Christian lies ; 
No, 'tis not his — 'Tis death itself there dies." 

Call you this delusion ? If so, it is more blessed than any of 
earth's realities. When I think of the bliss which some believers 



44 



MEMORIAL OF 



have felt while dying, I cannot envy the happiness of the most- 
prospered worldling. Borne on the pinions of faith, as I have 
winged my way to the mansions of the blessed, earth has 
dwindled to a point — the world's brightest scenes have been 
covered as with the pall of darkness. 

O the triumphs of faith in the dying hour of many, many a 
follower of the Lamb ! Well and truly has it been said, that 
could we gather unto one view all the declarations of faith in 
Jesus, all the gratulations of conscience, all the adoring addresses 
to the Father of lights, all the admonitions and benedictions to 
weeping friends, and all the beams of opening glory that have 
irradiated the dying features of believers, our souls would burn 
with the sentiment which made the wicked Baalim devout for a 
moment : " Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last 
end be like his ! " 

But, mark you, dear hearers, that blessed future is in reserve 
only for those who die in the Lord. 

If there be a moral government, and moral distinctions are 
not arbitrary and mutable, the presumption is obtruded on our 
minds that the Great Regent of the universe will reward only 
the virtuous subjects of his rule. This was the conclusion of the 
heathen mind ; while the idea of the present as a state of moral 
trial, necessitates the presumption that future rewards and pun- 
ishments will be dispensed according to moral character. Con- 



REV. WILLIAM W. PHILLIPS, D.D. 45 

science, too, however unwillingly, always bears unerring testi- 
mony in favor of the future happiness of the virtuous alone. No 
wicked man in his moments of solitary reflection — while bending 
before " the secret confessional of thought " — ever presumes that 
he will be fit to die until he has at least changed his course 
of life. 

But God's word, while disclosing a future state, has de- 
finitively settled the point as to the heirs of future blessedness. 

Into that blessed world " there shall in no wise enter anything 
that defileth, neither worketh abomination or maketh a lie ; but 
they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." It is true 
that, " as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive ; " 
but they alone will rise to the resurrection of life who are in him 
" not having their own righteousness." It is true that " He 
is the propitiation for our sins : and not for ours only, but also 
for the sins of the whole world ; " but it is also written, " he that 
believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God 
abideth on him." There is no salvation for fallen man without 
faith in Christ ; and no true faith in him without works ; for 
u with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness." In God's 
sight actions are not viewed separately from the principles of 
actions ; nor philosophically can any action be regarded as good 
or bad disjoined from its principle. The inward, absolute ground 
of all good works, therefore, is faith. Hence, St. Paul affirms 



46 



MEMORIAL OF 



that " a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." 
Hence, St. J ames shows, " how that by works a man is justified, 
and not by faith only ; " because " faith without works is dead, 
being alone : " thus alike harmonizing with Christ's own declara- 
tion that u the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves 
shall hear His voice, and shall come forth : they that have done 
good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done 
evil unto the resurrection of damnation." 

" Not every one," then, " that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall 
enter into the kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will 
of my Father in heaven." Not every one that dieth is blessed ; 
but only they who die in the Lord : die in His fold — though but 
in the infancy of their earthly life : die in His cause — whatever 
their sphere of duty in subservience to that cause ; or rather die 
in vital union with Him : their life in Christ giving them life in 
death : thus " found in Him," when death — the ending of our 
day of grace — comes; no matter where, in what way or at what 
hour it may come. 

Consider their conflicts with the depravity of their own 
hearts, with the tempting interests of the world, with wicked 
men in their opposition to Grod and godliness, with the great 
adversary of souls ; their labors in consequence of their own 
besetting sins, of abounding irreligion, of lurking dangers, and 
obtruding fears ; their labors in much weakness, in sickness, and 



REV. WILLIAM W. PHILLIPS, D.D. 



47 



sorrow, and death : — from all these they have rested. Consider 
their works : how they wept over their sins, and strove after per- 
sonal purity ; how they searched their hearts, and guarded their 
words and actions; how they wrestled in prayer, and fought the 
good fight of faith ; how they sought to know the mind and will 
of God, and observed to improve His providences ; how they 
shunned the haunts and ways of the world, and honored God's 
sabbaths and ordinances ; how they conducted their secular busi- 
ness in the fear of God, and employed their talents to His glory, 
and regarded themselves as strangers and pilgrims on the earth ; 
how carefully they sought the way of duty whatever their calling 
or station in life ; how they instructed and disciplined their 
households ; how they distributed to the needy, and carried balm 
to the aching heart ; how they aimed to teach the ignorant and 
reclaim the wandering and reform the vicious ; to " strengthen 
the stakes and lengthen the cords of Zion ; " to hold forth the 
word of life, and in every appropriate way to diffuse the knowl- 
edge of the " great salvation." 

All these works, imperfect indeed, and not to be even men- 
tioned as reasons for their being saved, have followed them to 
the bar of God as so many loving, faithful witnesses of their faith 
in Christ ; and that they " held fast the beginning of their con- 
fidence steadfast unto the end." 

Happy they, who, when conducted by angels to " the pure 



48 



MEMORIAL OF 



river of tlie water of life which clear as crystal proceedeth out of 
the throne of God and the Lamb " will be able to reflect that so 
long as they were in the world, they aimed to promote God's 
glory ! Thrice happy they who are followed there by souls con- 
verted to Christ through their h amble instrumentality ! 

It were inferrible from the words of the text, that the dogma 
of " universal salvation " is not from heaven ; that after death 
there is no place of temporary suffering in preparative purification 
for heaven ; that the soul does not sleep until the resurrection ; 
and that the rewards of heaven may be proportioned to our 
works. But more practical inferences will engage our concluding 
reflections. 

If then such is the blessedness of those who die in the Lord, 
how dark, how malign the heart that would abolish Christianity. 
Our na ure, though fallen, still pants after future bliss. All 
nations have entertained some faint idea that Paradise might be 
regained. Hence the credibility of the discoveries of the gospel. 
Nowhere else can we find any intelligible glimpses of future 
existence ; through no other medium discern the path of life. 
Does not virtue in her natural yearnings look forward to another 
and a better world \ In the absence of revelation, has not this 
hope been her only solace when suffering under neglect and 
scorn, or exposed to violence \ Now tell the sons and daughters 



REV. WILLIAM W. PHILLIPS, D. D. 



49 



of toiling, suffering, sorrowing humanity — tell them — as you 
surely may on the authority of high heaven ; that if they are 
only united by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered and 
died for them, they shall at last enter into a blessed rest, and 
joy springs up in every heart. But infidelity would leave them 
to grapple with their fate ; or turn away with no piteous ear for 
the cry of their despair. 

As I stand by the grave of buried love, shall I be told that 
there is no reunion with the loved and lost on earth ? When 
stretched upon my own death couch, mine eye looking out for the 
last time upon the beauteous scenes of earth, and my poor soul 
relieved from its throes of anguish only by the hope of a blessed 
future, shall I be told that the idea of heaven is a weak, sickly 
illusion % Wretched men ! to what would they reduce us ? Ah, 
my brethren, were it possible, they would break up your peace 
with God, and render you like themselves the enemies of God 
and man. 

With how strong a reason are we furnished by the text, to 
hope respecting those who were not permitted by either the sud- 
denness of their summons, or the nature of their disease to give 
their dying testimony to the value of the faith they had professed. 

We are wont to anticipate something of the kind, especially 
in the case of devoted Christians. To see a dying man triumph- 
ing over the fear of death, and the pains of dissolution is a 
7 



50 



MEMORIAL OF 



phenomenon almost inexplicable to the worldly mind. To gather 
around the bed of a dear friend ; and as sweet voices from heaven 
are calling him away — to hear him telling us of God and Jesus, 
and that world of light whither he is hastening : as it were 
stopping for a moment to bid us stay our tears — to commend us 
to His heavenly Father, and serenely take of us a last and long 
adieu — 'tis most consoling as well as tenderly affecting. 

But there is at times a strange lighting up of the faculties as 
the soul is about to part with the body : a brilliancy of concep- 
tion and depth of sentiment far from natural to the former man ; 
and which may philosophically be viewed as the blending result 
of entire abstraction from sensible objects, and the mysterious 
influences which are at work during the incipient process of disso- 
lution. On this account I would rather see one during his life 
praising God, than praising him only when he comes to die. 
Perhaps it requires more grace to live well than to die well. 
But if the life has given evidence of regenerated affections, though 
the hours of the sick and dying man may be clouded — his spirit 
enters into heaven's rest. Enoch gave no dying testimony. " He 
was not, for God took him ; " and it would seem that one reason 
for this supernatural exemption from death was to show the 
prevalent value of a life of faith. Whitefield said that he should 
give his testimony during the days of health ; and it is remark- 
able that his Hps were sealed from the time he was taken sick. 



REV. WILLIAM W. PHILLIPS, D.D. 51 

Such, instances — and to these might be added the cases of no less 
than four of our eminent divines but recently deceased ; — may 
assure us that there is no reason to doubt the salvation of our 
pious friends, though they spoke not on their death-bed to tell us 
of their pardon and anticipated bliss. 

The declaration of the Holy Spirit in the text, throws a 
shadow over the future condition of mere nominal Christians. 
If heaven be a rest for the self-denying followers of the Lord 
Jesus, how can they be the heirs of heaven who, while confessing 
Christ, are living to " the world, with its affections and lusts." 
Is a spiritual, holy world the appropriate place for resting from 
the anxious pursuit of riches, and the panting course of selfish 
ambition ? From what labors then shall these rest ? — from con- 
flicts with evil desires and outward temptations? They have 
yielded to their heart's lusts, and settled down amid the gathered 
comforts of sensual ease : as if this were their rest, and no world of 
spiritual enjoyment ever allured them to its high and holy abodes. 

What works shall follow them? They never denied them- 
selves for the sake of Christ ; they went not about doing good ; 
they esteemed it not their meat to do the will of their heavenly 
Father. No one, it may be, is the wiser or the better for their 
having lived. Perhaps, some may be the worse for their having 
confessed Christ before men ; through their example may have 
persisted in their own worldliness — their inconsistencies, hardened 



52 



MEMORIAL OF 



themselves in unbelief! Ah, yes; their works too shall follow 
them ; but it will be, not as evidences of their faith unfeigned, 
but their insincerity unveiled ; not to witness in mitigation of 
their sentence, but to testify to the justice of their doom. Breth- 
ren, forget not that this is not your rest. Give all diligence to 
the work of the Lord, that you may make " your calling and 
election sure " unto yourselves and others. 

If they who die in the Lord are blessed because they rest 
from their labors, and are followed by their works, how unsafe 
is it to postpone the work of repentance and faith to a dying 
hour. 

Never can I forget the case of the penitent thief ; and there- 
fore cannot refrain from saying to the dying sinner — " Do not 
despair, if you are penitent and do indeed believe ; " but sure 
am I that it is awfully dangerous to defer this w T eighty matter 
between God and the soul. I tell you the hour of death is not 
the time for preparation. If the ever blessed Spirit of God may 
not have been grieved from your heart by oft-repeated repulses — 
consider ! You may be seized with a fever, and your mind will 
wander away from God and eternity. Keason may desert her 
throne from the moment you are laid on that death-bed, and then 
farewell to your poor soul ! Your symptoms may be aggravated 
hj the least excitement ; and even your dearest friend will not 
dare to tell you, though in the softest tones — that you are going 



REV. WILLIAM. W. PHILLIPS, D.D. 53 

to die. You may be suddenly arrested in your career of world- 
liness, and die " and make no sign." 

Under the most favorable circumstances your mind will sym- 
pathize with the feebleness of your dying body ; and who shall 
say that anything can be done for your soul ; much less that at 
that late hour you will be able to find a " hook to hang a hope 
on " for eternity. 

In such an hour — amid the solemnities of exchan^ino; worlds 
— even the believer needs something else to rest on than mere 
feeling. If he would have peace and joy in believing, he must 
look back, not to rest on works, but that works may tell him 
where he has rested his immortal soul. How unutterably impor- 
tant, then, immediate repentance " towards God and faith in the 
Lord Jesus Christ." A voice from the Scriptures says — " By 
their fruits ye shall know them." A voice from death-beds cries 
— " Work while it is called to-day." A voice from heaven re- 
sponds — " Yea, that they may rest from their labors." 

If such then be the blessedness of those who die in the Lord, 
what must be the condition of those who die out of Christ. In 
proportion to the happiness of the former is the misery of the 
latter. As are the self-gratulations of the one, so the self- 
reproaches of the other. As the one looks forward without fear, 
knowing whom he believed, so the other, without hope, knowing 
whom he had rejected. As the one rises in bliss and glory, so 



54 



MEMORIAL OF 



the other sinks in shame and woe. All tears are wiped from the 
eyes of the one : his heart beats with love ; his lips are vocal 
with praise ; his countenance is radiant with joy. No cares can 
ever disquiet him, no sorrows depress, no evils annoy, no dangers 
alarm. All there is peace ; — not to be fully imaged by the 
hushed winds pillowed on the bosom of the waveless deep : all 
is rest, such as was never enjoyed by the tempest-tossed mariner 
when safely moored in quiet waters ; or the wearied husbandman 
at summer's twilight hour. All is joy — " fullness of joy," — such 
as never " entered into the heart of man." 

Thus blessed are the dead, that die in the Lord : unutterably, 
uninterruptedly forever blessed ; and while a voice from heaven 
proclaims it, the church on earth takes up the heaven-sent mes- 
sage, and responds — " The souls of believers at death do imme- 
diately enter into glory." 

But the condition of those who die out of Christ, ah, how 
dreadful ! No rest day nor night from the remembrance of a 
Saviour neglected, the Spirit grieved — God dishonored ; no rest 
while eternity rolls on from the action of guilty passions — from 
the gnawings of the deathless, insatiate worm. Followed by 
their works, their unbelief and impenitence, their hatred and 
malice, their dishonesty and uncleanness, their oaths and blas- 
phemies, their desecrated sabbaths, their deserted altars, their 
despised warnings, their vain boastings — all these rise and pass 



REV. WILLIAM W. PHILLIPS, D.D. 



55 



before their frenzied sight in endless succession : their sins — 
their sins — each hissing with the tongue of an adder and biting 
with the fangs of a scorpion. 

To die out of Christ ? who can conceive the misery of that 
soul ? Ah ! could but a whisper from that dark world be heard, 
how would all flee to Christ, if so be that they might escape the 
damnation of hell! 

But I may no longer dwell on this passage of Holy Writ. 
Perhaps no one among his contemporaries inculcated the great 
principles which it implies more with decision of emphasis than 
William W. Phillips, D. D., late pastor of this church. Having 
embraced the faith in Christ on the credit of revelation : having 
been called, as he humbly trusted, of God, to the work of the gos- 
pel ministry, and conscientiously respecting the solemn vow which 
he had taken when set apart to this work " with the laying on of 
the hands of the Presbyter}^" it was the aim of his ministerial life 
to save souls from going down to a Christless grave ; to lead those 
within the range of his influence so to live that they might die 
in the Lord : yea, to bring sinful, guilty, dying men to Christ that 
they might be justified by faith ; and on the day of final account 
be " found in Christ, not having their own righteousness which 
is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the 
righteousness which is of God by faith." 



56 



MEMORIAL OF 



To this end — lest lie should deceive himself with a false hope, 
or lose his first love, and thus be tempted to make the ministry 
a mere profession — he took great heed to himself as well as to his 
doctrine : — forming the habit of retired devotion ; cherishing 
sentiments of love to God and love for souls ; scrutinizing his 
heart that he might not preach without a true experience of the 
power of truth ; regulating his life according to the precepts of 
the gospel, that he might be " an example of the believers in 
word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity ; " 
realizing his own responsibility and constant needs " lest while 
he preached to others, he himself should be a castaway." 

To this end, he kept an eye to all the providences of God : 
accustoming himself to recognize God's hand in all the events 
of life, as designed to test our love and willing obedience no less 
by success than by disappointment ; by mercies, than by trials : 
believing as he did that God, in order to purify his people, some- 
times suffers them to be tried as by fire. 

To this end also he made the Scriptures his prayerful study, 
that he might be rooted and grounded in " the truth as it is in 
Jesus ; " and " approved unto God, a workman that needeth not 
to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." Hence his 
remarkable familiarity with Scripture as evinced by his sermons 
and prayers ; so note- worthy in his tender interviews with the 
sick and with the afflicted, as well as in those expositions of God's 



REV. WILLIAM W. PHILLIPS, D.D. 



57 



Word to wliicli lie attached so much importance, and in which 
he excelled. 

Hence, from his knowledge of the Scriptures, he regarded the 
Lord Jesus Christ in his several offices as the sum and substance 
of God's revelation of his mind and will to a darkened and alien- 
ated world : Christ the Hevealer, Christ the Exemplar, Christ 
the Redeemer of God's elect, Christ the Intercessor, Christ, exalted 
to be head over all things to His church : thus ever honoring the 
Son even as the Father ; and thus in keeping with the great end 
of his ministry which he " had received from the Lord Jesus," 
he taught the indispensable necessity of faith in Christ, and 
" affirmed constantly that they which have believed in God might 
be careful to maintain good w T orks." 

Any view that tended to divert attention from the Bible as 
" the only infallible rule of faith and practice ; " — to exalt reason 
to the disparagement of God's written Word ; to inflate depravity 
with the delusive idea of self-regeneration ; to supersede the 
necessity of faith by a selfish morality ; to bring down the Lord 
of glory to the level of a mere man ; to set aside the doctrines 
of grace for the speculative conclusions of the unassisted mind ; 
to put the church in the place of her adorable Head ; to transmute 
the symbols of His sacrificial death into his literal body and 
blood ; or impute their efficacy to consecrated hands ; in short, any 
human opinion, any ghostly device, or ceremonial observance that 
tended to invalidate the claims of God's holy Word, pervert its 

8 



58 



MEMORIAL OF 



teachings, and degrade the glorious gospel of the blessed God — 
thus perilling immortal souls ! — he withstood, and on occasions 
in unmistakable terms of reprehension and solemn warning. As 
if Paul, the great champion of the Christian doctrines, had ex- 
claimed — " Oh foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that 
ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hatL 
been evidently set forth, crucified among you." 

Strict in his adherence to the doctrinal standards of the church, 
as well as decided in his ecclesiastical affinities, he was no less 
Scriptural in his views in relation to all measures for advancing 
the cause of Christ : discriminating between man's work, and the 
work of the Holy Spirit with hardly less precision than between 
the traditions of the Pharisees and the principles of the gospel. 
Averse to uncommanded days, he exalted the authority of the 
Sabbath, and kept within the limits of the divinely appointed 
ordinances of God's house. Though distrustful of sudden excite- 
ments, he failed not to perceive the necessity of earnest self-denying 
effort and prayerful activity in the church. 

While magnifying his office, he was little in his own estimation. 
Eecognizing with thankfulness that diversity of gifts which 
characterizes the ministry, he was never backward to give credit 
to any, however brilliant their talents, or varied their acquire- 
ments, so long as they preached not themselves or their 'isms ; 
nor to fraternize with any so long as he was not required to 



REV. WILLIAM W. PHILLIPS, D. D. 



59 



compromise some essential principle. While regular in the dis- 
charge of his pulpit duties, he was not unmindful of all that ap- 
pertained to the interests of the church : her courts which he 
attended with conscientious promptness and strict attention to 
business, and over the highest of which he once presided ; her 
Boards which he warmly commended and habitually aided ; her 
missions — especially her foreign missions, which enlisted at regular 
times his prayerful attention — having been from the organization 
of the Board here in 1837, Chairman of the Executive Committee, 
and of late years, President of the Board ; and though last, not to 
be overlooked in an estimate of his usefulness, his interest in the 
diffusion of a sound religious literature, and in the cause both of 
collegiate and theological training : he having occupied the seat 
in the Board of Publication vacated by the death of the late Dr. 
Archibald Alexander ; and been both a trustee and director and 
President of the Board of Directors of the Theological Seminary at 
Princeton, New Jersey. Nor was his attention limited to these. 
He w T as a member of the Council of the New York University ; 
and a trustee of Nassau Hall. By the terms of their respective 
foundation, he was ex-officio, a trustee of " the Leake and Watts' 
Orphan Asylum,'' and of " the Sailor's Snug Harbor." 

It is unnecessary to retrace his course from April, 1818, 
when having completed his studies under the care of the late Dr. 
John M. Mason, he was ordained and installed pastor of the late 



60 



MEMORIAL OF 



Pearl Street Church, where he labored with great acceptance and 
marked success for eight years ; and from which he was called to 
the First Presbyterian Church, then worshipping in Wall Street, 
but afterwards removed to this site on Fifth Avenue. It will be 
perceived at a glance, that though his labors were seemingly cir- 
cumscribed to this church, of which he was pastor for thirty-nine 
years, they embraced the cause of literature and science as well 
as the interests of Christianity at home and abroad ; of enlight- 
ened Christian charity as well as the concerns of personal religion. 

These various offices of trust were in God's providence imposed 
upon him ; not sought by him. In all other public relations he 
would willingly have given place to those whom he esteemed 
more competent than himself to effective influence ; but in rela- 
tion to the work of the ministry, that he conceived to be especially 
incumbent on his time and talents. Far from over-weening, he 
knew what, by God's grace, he could do, and did it, punctually, 
faithfully — to the extent of his ability in the various spheres of 
duty in which he was placed, with a clear mind, a sound judg- 
ment, and a true heart. 

And though others may have been less technical in their 
forms, more varied in their topics, or more attractive in style 
and manner, yet no one entered the pulpit under a profounder 
conviction of the truth of his message, or led the devotions 
of the sanctuary under a deeper sense of the Divine presence : 



REV WILLIAM W. PHILLIPS, D. D. 



61 



the secret, it may be, of his marked spirituality and powei 
in prayer. 

His heart was in the ministry, beating in unison with its 
claims, its needs, its duties, its trials, its responsibilities, its ap- 
propriate influence ; and longing for its crowns of rejoicing in the 
day of the Lord. Hence, his interest in youthful ministers, as 
well as pity for those among his brethren who might have been 
wronged, or were struggling with difficulties ; his tears over the 
grave of youthful promise ; his words of encouragement to the 
young communicant ; his joy over the returning prodigal ; his 
tender remembrance of the far distant missionary ; his lamenta- 
tions over the dark places of the earth, so full of the habitations 
of cruelty ; his concern for those who are living at home in the 
neglect of their privileges ; his sympathy with the troubled and 
tried ; his prayers so Scriptural] y appropriate by the bedside of 
the sick and the dying. 

A true servant of the cross — in full sympathy with all who 
love the Lord Jesus, and with all Scriptural means to extend 
his kingdom, his field was the world ; yet though conspicuously 
devoted to the cause of foreign missions, he overlooked not the 
spiritual waste places of his own land ; nor the perils to which 
she is exposed from the stealthy approaches of the man of sin, on 
the one hand, and the ascendancy of godless politics on the other. 
A heart so true to her spiritual interests as well as her civil and 



62 



MEMORIAL OF 



religious rights, could not have been false to his own civil obliga- 
tion in the hour of her fiery trial — no matter who might dissent 
from his Scriptural conclusions, or turn away from his min- 
istrations. 

Trials, he indeed had — such as no one can hardly expect to 
avoid who will preach the plain truth of God's Word, whether 
men will hear, or whether they will forbear : trials too, from 
which even such men of God as Baxter and Payson, were not 
exempt ; but they were sanctified trials, and while u committing 
himself to Him who judgeth righteously," in his case the inspired 
declaration was illustriously verified : " If ye be reproached for 
the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the spirit of glory and of 
God resteth on you." 

Having thus spoken of Dr. Phillips, as a minister, I need not 
speak of him in his intercourse with his people, or with society ; 
much less in his domestic relations : so courteous was he, and 
withal dignified ; grave without austerity ; firm, but kind ; pa- 
tient, though determined ; retiring, yet unselfish ; listening well, 
rather than talking much ; thankful for any favor ; ready to be- 
friend. Those who knew him best only respected him the more, 
as they who were bound to him in the tenderest of human ties, 
loved him the more ; but not with a purer sentiment of esteem 
than they — whether rich or poor — (the highest tribute that can 
be paid to an aged pastor) — who had sat the longest under his 



REV. WILLIAM W. PHILLIPS, D.D. 63 

ministry. I may not speak of his loss to them — those elders who 
in so long holding up his hands, now feel only the more their own 
needs ; those aged communicants who had fondly hoped that he 
would be spared to minister to their own dying hour : much less 
of his loss to his numerous family. I can only commend them to 
the merciful kindness of the God of all grace and consolation ; 
and gently tell them not to weep ; but rather bless God that he 
was spared to them through so many years — making theirs, under 
God's kind providence, a happy home ; and that he was taken 
away at the right time, in the right place, in the right way. 

Though disease was rapidly sapping his bodily strength, yet 
retaining his intellectual vigor, and growing in grace, he worked 
on in his accustomed method : preaching when most ministers 
would have procured a supply ; experiencing in his pulpit a 
degree of relief from pain which was denied to him at home ; 
enjoying the services of the sanctuary with increasing spiritual 
delight ; providing for his pulpit when finally unable to leave 
his room ; during his brief intervals of physical relief, writing his 
last sermon, though he knew it not. 

On the desk of his study lay that unfinished manuscript from 
the significant text : " There is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, 
that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will 
not cease ; though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the 
stock thereof die in the ground. * * * But man dieth and 



64 



MEMORIAL OF 



wasteth away : yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is 
he?" 

It was in the room adjoining his study that, notwithstanding 
his extreme feebleness and incessant bodily pain, he met the 
session of his church, opened the meeting with a most touchingly 
appropriate prayer — after having calmly replied to the solicitous 
inquiry of his elders respecting his health : " If it should please God 
to spare my life a little longer, I shall gratefully accept the mercy ; 
if not, I trust that grace will be given me to meet my latter end." 

Some faint hopes were entertained of his recovery ; but the 
third day after this meeting of session — while his people were 
gathered round the communion table, and he himself, though ab- 
sent in person, was communing with them in spirit, and with his 
blessed Lord in private — a sudden change in his disease " foretold 
the ending of mortality." 

He had borne his suffering without a murmur; he had con- 
templated the probability of his approaching end with the even 
serenity of trust ; he died without being able to tell us whither 
he was going : but he has rested from his labors and his works 
do follow him. 

As I look back this day upon his ministry, I am impressively 
reminded of those who preceded him in the pastorate of this 
church — the venerable Rodgers, the circumspect and erudite 
Miller, the beloved Whelpley — so early ripe for heaven ; min- 



REV. WILLUM W. PHILLIPS, D.D, 65 

isters whose memory is still fragrant in the churches ; and those 
elders, too, who supported this church from its earliest organi- 
zation ; held fast the form of sound words, and died in the 
Lord. 

How many cherished names has this church recorded ; how 
many solemn vows have here been made ; how many baptismal 
seals of the covenant have here been set ; how many sacra- 
mental seasons enjoyed ; how many have gone forth thence to 
various spheres of usefulness, even to the ends of the earth — 
carrying with them the glad tidings of great joy ; how various 
the influences for man's good and God's glory which have 
emanated from this pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church in 
this city ; and how many — some near and dear to us — and who 
but lately joined in the devotions of this sanctuary, have died in 
the Lord, and gone to be forever with the Lord. " Precious in 
the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints/' How glorious 
will be our departed brother's meeting with those whom he had 
instrument ally won to Christ, and directed on their heavenward 
way. How blessed the communion of the saints in glory ! How 
delightful the renewed intercourse of those who once took sweet 
counsel together and walked to the house of God in company — 
to meet — to meet where there will be no parting — those who 
have sat with us at the table of Jesus, and partaken of the same 
cup of blessing ! to join the innumerable company of angels, and 

9 



66 MEMORIAL OF REV. WILLIAM W. PHILLIPS, D.D. 

the church of the first-born — to be forever in this blessed company, 
and quenching our thirst in the rivers of pleasure which flow fast 
by the throne of God and the Lamb. 

O ! could your late beloved pastor but speak to us from that 
heavenly world, with what glowing accents of affection would he 
say — " Weep not for me. My Beloved is mine, and I am His. 
I am saved through free grace. I have rested from my feeble 
labors, and my works, though not worth speaking of on earth, 
have in remembrance followed me, and in testimony spoken for 
me. But could I have had any adequate conception of the glory 
to be revealed, how would I have loved and lived ! how zealous 
for God's glory in the salvation of dying sinners — the triumphs 
of redeeming love ! " 

But we cannot hear his voice : it is blended with the voices 
of all those out of every nation and people, and kindred and 
tongue, who before the throne, and hard by " the sea of glass 'i 
now sing the new song, and will forever ascribe salvation unto 
the Lamb. 

But we have heard a voice from heaven— (oh that it might 
sound in our ear until every saint shall awake to righteousnesss, 
and every saint gird himself anew for the work of faith) ! for 
the voice has said — " Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord 
from henceforth ; yea, saith the Spirit — (ratifying what we have 
heard ;) that they may rest from their labors." 



OFFICERS 

OF THE 

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 

May 1st, 1865. 



We 

JAMES DONALDSON, WALTER LOWRIE, 

AAEON R. THOMPSON, AARON B. BELKNAP. 



EDWARD S. JAFFRAY, HENRY M. TABER, 

HENRY NICOLL, THOMAS C. CHALMERS, 

STEPHEN BURKHALTER, ROBERT L. KENNEDY, 

JAMES L. BANKS, WILLIAM K. HERRICK, 

HEZEKIAH KING. 



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